Nutrition Heretic

Holiday meals are not complete without macaroni and cheese. Made more like a pasta and cheese quiche than macaroni covered in a heavy flour-based sauce, this recipe gets rave reviews every year. You’ll be shocked at how much you can eat without feeling bloated. You may even wake up in the middle of the night craving this mac n’ cheese recipe.

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Since organic macaroni elbows are not always easy to find, I usually use one or two types of extruded pastas such as penne rigate, rigatoni, fusilli, and farfalle. A mix can offer a nice textural interest between shapes with large holes to hold the cheese custard for a burst of flavor and others that hold the cheese on the surface. I boil them in the same pot of salted water starting with the type with the longest cooking time, then adding the one that takes less time at the appropriate moment. So if one pasta says 10 min and the other says 7, I’ll start the 10 min pasta boil for 3 minutes before adding the other one.

IMPORTANT: Because your custard will give off some water, do not cook the pasta until it is al dente. Your pasta will be mushy after an hour of baking in the custard. Instead, shave off 2 minutes from the total pasta cooking time.

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I prefer rather sharp cheeses such as sharp cheddar, but have been known to mix in milder cheeses in this family such as colby or simply mild cheddar. If all you have access to is mild cheese and you want a more assertive flavor, consider mixing in a more assertive one (or more) such as parmesano reggiano or pecorino romano. You may even try a really funky cheese like gorgonzola or roquefort, but I’d limit it to a few dots here and there as they can be overpowering.

Here, I was emptying remnants of cheese that were taking up space in the fridge, so cottage cheese and a few slices of mozzarella made it in. The cottage cheese reminds me of really good noodle kugel, so it’ll be a permanent inclusion to my recipe going forward. Be creative and use what you have on hand. You just might stumble across your own signature combo!

I make this in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. If using large shapes like penne rigate, you will want an 8″ x 8″ baking dish on hand for an extra emergency mac and cheese.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs pasta shapes such as rigatoni, elbows, bowties etc, cooked according to package directions minus 2 minutes
• 2 T butter
• 2.5 lbs grated cheese such as sharp cheddar, parmesan, fontina, munster or colby
• softer cheeses such as cottage cheese, optional
• 6 or 7 eggs, depending on size
• 1 quart crème fraîche or heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk, optional — this makes the crème fraîche a bit easier to pour
• sea salt to taste
• pinch nutmeg
• a few dashes of paprika, optional

How to Make The Best the Best Mac n’ Cheese Ever

Heat oven to 350ºF/175ºF/gas mark 4. Start boiling the pasta according to package directions minus 2 minutes.

While pasta is boiling, make a custard by beating together eggs, crème fraîche, salt, spices and optional milk in a large bowl. If using soft cheese such as cottage cheese or ricotta, I suggest adding it now to evenly distribute it throughout the final dish, however, recommend against pureeing it, if you want to have the surprise texture and burst of flavor you get from these additions.

Grate hard cheese, if it is not already grated. You might try slices or chunks instead, if that floats your boat.

Drain pasta well, when it is 2 minutes shy of total recommended cooking time. Toss with butter to keep pasta from sticking to itself.

In your large baking dish, toss in a thin layer of grated cheese. You could butter the dish, but I stopped doing that a long time ago and there appears to be enough fat in this dish that nothing sticks anyway.

You’re gonna want to eyeball this part. Add a layer of pasta, followed by a thick layer of the remaining cheese. Repeat this sequence one or two more times, ending with cheese. The number of layers will vary with the size of the pasta. Be careful not to go too close to the top of your baking dish. As the cheese melts and spreads out, you don’t want it pouring out of the dish and burning on the floor of your oven.

If there is extra pasta and cheese, make a bonus mac and cheese in an appropriate sized dish to stuff in the freezer for a later date.

Pour your custard (egg mixture) over top of the macaroni and cheese a little at a time, again, being careful not to get too close to the rim of your dish. Not only will the contents expand during baking, the cheese and cream will release butter fat, which will spill out. Although the custard should naturally fall to the bottom as it heats, you may wanna take a large spoon and gently separate the pasta in a few places to make sure all the pasta eventually gets coated.

Any extra of this batter can go on top of your emergency mac. Obviously, you can make a smaller amount of custard for better coverage, if you’re running low.

To cover your dish, I suggest a piece of parchment against the food, then using a piece of aluminum foil to hold it in place and insulate it. The parchment keeps the food from absorbing aluminum, which is associated with dementia and other mental and nervous system disorders.

Bake for 30 minutes in pre-heated oven. Remove foil and parchment, take your large spoon and loosen custard to the bottom and assuring it cooks all the way through, then sprinkle top with as much cheese as you want and return to the oven uncovered for about 15 min.

When you remove it from the oven, the custard may still seem liquid in parts, but the heat will continue to gently set over the next several minutes. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side? Got your own rendition of mac n cheese you wanna share? Let me know below!